Movies

What a great film. The ties between these disparate stories are wondrously woven, and the sudden eye-opening twists are amazing. The spare music is a perfect backdrop. The acting is marvelous, with Amy Irving as the neglected wife of the melancholy professor and Alan Arkin playing the driven and lugubrious businessman with lots of problems and. I hardly realized who it was until halfway through the movie. I would compare this movie to other great art movies such as My Dinner With Andre, My Brilliant Career, Days of Heaven. It evoked in me similar emotions. If you are feeling down and want a big lift, I highly recommend this wonderful film. It deserves an 8 out of 10.

Imagine! A movie with no car chase, no special effects, no big stars, simple piano music, and no special sets. Just ordinary people struggling with daily life and trying to find the secret of happiness. Four basic stories interweave with each other, all examining the same human issues. Alan Arkin practically walks away with all the acting honors, but there are no weak roles or acting. What a joy to watch a profound movie, simply made.

"13 Conversations About One Thing" is in the genre of movies that deal with fate/coincidence in a rondelay story-telling technique. This is the more intellectual version of Tom Tykwer's German movies or as less violent than "Amores Perros."Writers/director the Sprecher sisters take a very different approach to human nature than in their sardonic "Clockwatchers," helped by intense performances by Matthew McConaughey and Alan Arkin and especially Clea DuVall who visibly change before our eyes as they are affected by chance slowly and fitfully playing out its hand around them.The chapter headings are a bit precious. I couldn't actually tell what order the story was being told to us, backwards, sideways, forwards? Or is the point that doesn't matter for happiness? We're cogs in The Great Mandella anyway, each touching the other in unknown ways?(originally written 6/16/2002)